


Monsters

by spacedaydreamer



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: Gen, it's really not ok, it's that ending, the end here is really dark, the left clone carlos au; but the pantry, warnings for gore and suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-12 04:23:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9055126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedaydreamer/pseuds/spacedaydreamer
Summary: Carlos and Akane wake up inside the pantry in ward C, Junpei nowhere to be found. A search ensues. (part of the Left clone Carlos AU)





	

Carlos groaned when he woke up, gripping his head in his hands. He wasn’t sure how many times they’d been through the process of losing their memories to the drugs in the bracelets, however he was quite sure that it was always going to be an unpleasant feeling. He hardly expected Brother to be merciful, but it would have been nice for him to at _least_ give them the grace of having the process of passing out repeatedly be painless.

The pain passed quickly however, and Carlos stood up to look around. They had woken up in the pantry, but the longer Carlos looked, he realized he couldn’t see Junpei. Akane seemed to have come to the same realization, and worry was evident on her face.

“Junpei? Junpei, where are you?”

There was no answer. A knot of worry formed in the base of Carlos’s stomach, but he forced it down. There was no way anything had happened to Junpei, he was incredibly strong. Junpei could hold his own- right? They tried to check outside but the door was locked, which meant they had no choice but to try to find a way to unlock it.

“Don’t worry Akane, I’m sure he’s fine. He probably just woke up before us, and locked us in here to mess with us.”

Carlos didn’t fully believe his words, but he had to keep Akane hopeful. It was obvious how much she cared for Junpei; any dread Carlos was feeling had to be a million times worse for her. But Akane was far stronger than she looked, and she only nodded with a determined look on her face.

He needed to get her mind off of things, so Carlos decided to ask her a question.

“Akane, what exactly _is_ Junpei to you? You say you’re childhood friends, but things seem more complex than that…”

“Junpei is… Junpei is very important to me.”

Akane’s eyes seemed to shine when she spoke about Junpei- it was obvious how much she cared for him, even to Carlos who’d hardly had any experience with genuine love or friendship.

“All my life, I never really had many friends to call my own. Junpei would always say that I was a girl who ‘always said what shouldn’t be said.’- I guess looking back on things now, I probably made the people around me uncomfortable.” She gave a bit of a self-deprecating laugh, before continuing to talk. “I wasn’t bullied, but people tended to ignore me or stay away from me. But Junpei… he was different. He would stand up for me, and he was always by my side. One time when we were kids, I was crying because some middle schoolers had killed the school rabbits- and Junpei ran off to face them all alone. He was outnumbered and almost nothing compared to them in terms of strength, but he still tried to teach them a lesson for what they’d done.”

Carlos could see the beginnings of tears forming in the corners of Akane’s eyes, yet she looked to happy while telling the story. It looked like a contradiction to Carlos, being happy and sad like that, but Akane just smiled as she kept talking.

“He came home black and blue, with these big bruises and bumps all over, but he was so proud of what he’d done.”

“He.. he sounds just like a hero.”

“Yes- at the very least, he is to me.”

Akane was so sincere while she spoke, but a small seed of sadness had planted itself in Carlos’s heart. Why wasn’t Junpei here for Akane? The other male would be able to offer comfort, genuine comfort, without any lies. He wasn’t a tower of lies and masks, running on a script and deceiving everyone from Dcom just to help his own selfish goal. He felt sickened by himself, but he didn’t have time to dwell; as Akane kept talking.

“But, over the last year… something changed Junpei. Something I did.” A deep sadness had taken root in Akane’s face, and for a moment she looked far, far older than she was. “What happened was unavoidable, but I ran away in the end… and I think because of me, he went through horrible, horrible things. I just want to see him smile, just once more… I want to help him, like he’s helped me so many times.”

Carlos forced a smile, trying to crush the guilt inside of him.

“Akane, I’m sure he’ll understand your feelings. I may not understand much about love, but it’s clear from your face that you love him a lot…”

Akane blushed, hiding her face behind her hands, before retaliating.

“Oh, stop that Carlos!” She took a moment to breath, before asking him a question this time. 

“Well, what about you? Is there anyone you love, Carlos?”

He didn’t miss a beat, nodding.

“My… my little sister. I signed up for the experiment for her sake, actually- she’s the light of my life, and I’d do anything to keep her smiling.”

“Oh, so a sister complex then.”

“Ha ha, you’re horrible.” Carlos laughed, but he wasn’t entirely sure he actually understood what that meant. Context alone was telling him that she was probably trying to get back at him for his earlier forwardness, so a joke was probably the best approach to take.

“Consider it payback for earlier!”

The sadness and nostalgia had lifted from Akane’s face, now instead replaced by determination and happiness. It would seem like Carlos had made the right choice- Akane looked a bit more like her normal self.

“Well, just sitting around here isn’t going to get us anywhere. We should start searching around to find a way out, right Carlos?”

“Right.”

Their first scan of the room was more informative than Carlos could have expected, finding a poster explaining how to make gelatin, as well as some cabinets that were clearly other puzzles to figure out. But he could feel the knot in his stomach tighten when they both examined the glass freezer, the blood draining from Akane’s face as she noticed what was locked up inside, apart from the blue doll. It was slightly blurred by the frost on the glass, but it was still easy to tell that it was a disembodied arm, handcuffed to a metal bar and help up by the aforementioned doll.

“O-oh my god…”

“I-I’m sure it’s just a medical mannequin. You see things like that all the time.”

Akane didn’t really believe him, it was obvious from the look on her face, but there was no other explanation that Carlos could accept. They both just needed to accept it, it _had_ to be the truth, please let it be the truth… Anything other than that would be just too cruel.

They moved on to other puzzles for the time being, a bit of quick searching finding them a bottle of iodine solution. However, more disturbing than the arm was the torso behind it, devoid of a head, arms, or anything below it’s chest. They could get closer to examine this one- however, neither of them wanted to. It’s just a fake- it just _has_ to be a fake- so no point dwelling on it.

It turned out there wasn’t really time to dwell on those thoughts whether they wanted to or not though, as they found out when Carlos opened the first box of potatoes. A right leg was there seated delicately on top, and from the severed end Carlos could see muscle and ligament. Akane had chosen to look away, but Carlos found that he just couldn’t- something in his mind told him that these mannequin parts meant something horrible, but he _had_ to ignore that part of him. They were just very well made, was all.

“Does Zero really think he can scare us with these parts?”

Zero- Brother. Carlos didn't know _why_ Brother would put these mannequin parts in the pantry for this puzzle, but it had to be for some reason. Everything Brother did was for a reason, even if those reasons were incomprehensible to Carlos. This was just some form of trick, something to put them on edge...

“Y-yeah, we’re not little kids…”

However, they stared at the second box for a solid minute or so, both parties unwilling to open it. It was Carlos who eventually did it, and they both breathed out a sigh of relief when there was nothing apart from a large amount of potatoes, a handful of them cut in half and a round knob mixed in among them. It was Akane who explained what to do while Carlos looked at them in confusion.

“What, did you never do this in science class? The iodine reacts with the starch in the potatoes, turning them purple.”

“Whoa, that’s pretty cool!”

“Yeah, I remember loving this sort of thing when I was a kid. It’s so neat to watch the potatoes change colour.”

She’d used the solution on the potatoes while speaking, and sure enough they changed colour to reveal some sort of code.

“DUDLLR…. Hmmm, what do you think this is for, Carlos?”

He crossed his arms in thought, looking around the room for an answer. It eventually presented itself, in the form of the freezer doors. He swallowed nervously but didn’t say anything more, instead going over to examine the locks- they were in the four cardinal directions, and he quickly put together that they must be related to the letters on the potatoes. The trick to getting both doors open was pretty simple, and it revealed a message on the overlaid glass panels.

_‘LEFT HAND + DOOR’_

That meant… they’d have to start examining the mannequin parts, didn’t it? Carlos really didn’t want to, but he knew he couldn’t let Akane do it. She was strong, yes, but the nagging feeling in his chest told him that he just couldn’t let her do it.

The handcuffs on the arm prevented him from examining the one in the freezer, but they picked up the rest of what they could- the water, doll, and the screen puzzle (which was solved easily enough), giving them everything they needed to make the gelatin.

They’d needed to use the previously found button to make the cooler/microwave work, but doing so gave them a little gelatin body. Slipping it into the slot below the button awarded them with a small key, which Carlos reluctantly used to grab the arm from the freezer. The hand had been frozen stiff, which meant if they were going to examine it at all, they’d need to microwave it- he felt sick doing it, but Carlos did so anyways. He did what had to be done.

But the hand didn’t have any hints in it, all it had now was a disgusting waxy feeling that left Carlos feeling worse every second he was holding it. There was something too real about the way the skin moved, and he could swear that he could feel bone inside. Carlos felt his gag reflex flare up, and he quickly set down the arm, unwilling to touch it any longer.

“Carlos.. I think we’re still missing something.”

He nodded, and they went to examine the room again. It was in the drawer beside where they’d found the gelatin powder (and the left leg) that they finally found their answer- the left arm, pinned through by a metal rod near the elbow and held up by a pair of handcuffs attached to the top.

They were relieved to find that they key worked for this arm as well, as it fell downwards with an uncomfortable ‘thud’ to reveal numbers drawn onto the palm.

“Five, two, nine?”

Akane shook her head.

“No, I think it’s six two five. The hand is upside down, so we’re probably supposed to flip the numbers.”

“Ooooh.”

Carlos nodded in understanding and turned to what he assumed to be the final part of the puzzle, a passcode lock.

“No, just that won’t be it- we still need the doll, right?”

Carlos frowned, turning it over to examine once more.

“Yeah, but… it’s solid blue. I don’t think it’s gonna tell us much.”

“What if we tried microwaving it? That’s worked for the rest of the puzzles here.”

It sounded like a good plan, so Carlos agreed readily and they did just that. Once Carlos had pulled the doll back from the microwave it had changed right to pink, with bright red letters across its stomach.

“One thousand two hundred and thirty-four, then add the six hundred twenty five…”

Akane was speaking aloud as she did the mental math, Carlos doing it alongside her.

“That’s one thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, right?”

“Yeah, I think so. Why don’t we try it on the panel there?”

Carlos input the numbers, and the panel flipped back to reveal a hand scanner. They both tried their own hands, but to no avail…

“I think.. we need to use the other arm.”

Carlos had left it on a shelf near the microwave earlier, but it seemed like he had no choice but to pick it up again. Akane looked fairly uncomfortable as he held it to the scanner, however when he did, the door opened…

Carlos wished it hadn’t.

The air was crisp and cold when it hit them, but that wasn’t the reason they flinched. No, that was due to the face- or rather, the _head_ that was staring back at them, face frozen in a permanent state of pain and horror. Carlos couldn’t look away, it was so horrible, so awful, _why had this happened…_

Akane’s horrified scream broke him out of his trance, as he heard her run out of the freezer room and collapse to the ground. 

“N-no… Junpei….” 

He didn’t know why he was moving closer to the head, but he couldn’t help it- maybe it was a fake? Just like all the other parts, right? The state of the room harshly told him otherwise, the entire freezer floor was coated in blood and gore, as if they'd drained every last drop from Junpei before hiding his body around the room. He was about halfway to the head, Junpei’s head, when everything came crashing down and he couldn’t deny it any longer. 

Not only was the head real, but every single part of the puzzle had been real, too. 

_They’d just used Junpei’s dismembered body for the puzzle._

Carlos thought he was going to be sick. 

This _had_ to be Brother’s doing, some horribly fucked up punishment for Carlos. Let him get close to people, let him think he could befriend them, and then murder them in cold blood and use them like toys. They were all just toys, pawns for Brother to use in his sick, disgusting game. Or hell, maybe it was punishment for _all_ of them, for daring to think that they could interfere with him. They were fools to think that this game wouldn't end their deaths, really. 

Brother knew everything. He saw everything. 

He was watching, always watching, and planning, always planning... 

He didn’t have time to think further when the announcement voice came on, disgustingly cold and impersonal as it made its announcement. 

“Now announcing… the current casualties. D-team: Diana, Phi, Sigma. C-team: Junpei. These four… are now deceased. As a result, four X-passes will be revealed. BLUE… RED…MILK…JUMP… That is all.” 

The silence was suffocating, and Carlos found that he couldn’t really think. He could hear Akane screaming and crying from the other room, in what could only be described as pure emotional agony, but Carlos couldn’t move. 

“O-out… w-we have to get out…” 

His eyes darted around the room in desperation, until they settled on the ground. A fire axe and a chainsaw… the chainsaw was already coated in blood- it was clearly Junpei’s. The killer had probably used it to remove his limbs… 

He couldn’t touch the thing that had been used to mutilate Junpei so horridly, so he instead picked up the axe and ran at the door, screaming and swinging in his attempts to break it down. 

_“DAMN IT! DAMN IT! BREAK, DAMN YOU!!!”_

Carlos wasn’t sure if he was entirely sane anymore, but he just needed to get out of the room. He could hardly even see Akane, he just needed out…but he turned to look when he heard the sound of the chainsaw starting, turning to see Akane holding it with tears in her eyes. 

“A-Akane…?” 

She screamed at the door, shoving the chainsaw into it as the door fell to pieces around the blade. She never stopped crying the entire time, not even when it slowed to a stop and they walked slowly to the lounge, trying to take in what had just happened. 

Carlos wanted to comfort her, but how could he? How could a simple clone, with no more than maybe 3 months of experience in the real world, comfort a real person in a time like this? Akane didn’t need him, she needed _Junpei._

But now she’d never have him ever again. 

Carlos could feel his heart shattering at Akane’s sobs, unable to really speak or move. Gab had shown up, but the old dog seemed to share Carlos’s remorse and stayed a few steps back from Akane, occasionally giving a whine of what Carlos assumed was supposed to be concern. 

“Damn it… damn it…. This wasn’t suppose to happen! I just wanted to save Maria, but now this… none of this was supposed to happen. I just wanted to save her… just get out of here, and save her…” 

He was muttering under his breath, but it was clear Akane had heard him. 

“That’s why you killed Junpei, isn’t it? For her.” 

Carlos looked at her in shock, but it was clear that something was… wrong. Something was horribly, horribly wrong with Akane. She’d picked up the chainsaw and was staring at him with empty, soulless eyes, but her voice was steeped in a quiet hatred. 

“You knew you’d need more X-passes to get out of here, so you killed him. You figured you’d need to kill at least one person if you wanted to get out to save your sister.” 

“Wh-what are you talking about?” 

_**“DON’T PLAY DUMB!”**_

Carlos almost jumped at the force to her voice, the sudden scream was jarring. 

“Did you forget that you and I are the _only_ ones in this ward? I would _never_ kill Junpei! Which means, _IT WAS YOU!_ ” 

Carlos could only stare in horror at her. Surely, there was no way he could have killed Junpei, right? It just… it just didn’t make sense. He’d have to remember that, wouldn’t he? But the drugs in the bracelets… 

Was it.. really possible? 

He couldn’t think any longer, because Akane was swinging the chainsaw down at him with full force. He didn’t think he’d ever seen such hatred in anyone’s eyes before- it was terrifying. He managed to grab the fire axe and jump out of the way, but Akane didn’t seem too put off. 

“So, you’re going to kill me now, too? Just like you killed Junpei?” 

Carlos wanted to dispute her claim, to say that there had to be something they were missing, but he just couldn’t. There was no possible way Akane could kill Junpei, which meant… it had to be him. He didn’t want it to be true, but there was no other possible explanation. 

Maybe, in the end, he’d always been destined to be a murderer. 

First his selfishness had gotten Maria’s parents killed and put her in a coma, and now that same selfishness had killed Junpei. He was a monster. 

Monster. Monster. Monster. 

The word repeated in Carlos’s mind like a broken record, sounding over and over on an endless loop. Akane was moving closer but he screamed at her to get back, eyes wild with distress as he held the axe up to his own throat. 

“Y-you couldn’t have killed him, Akane…. I-it had to be me… I-I’m sorry, Akane…” His apology seemed to have grounded her for a second, but it was too late for him. He held the axe up to his neck, already on auto-pilot, and said the last few words that came to mind. 

The words he’d been taught a million times, the prayer to a false god that held no meaning, the only thing he knew that could ensure Akane would despise him forever. 

_‘Oh holy father, holy brother, holy master… with these two hands, mankind is saved. I am your will made flesh. In your name, I give thanks.’_

And then the axe slit his throat, and he faded into nothing.


End file.
